Battle
by Lorinhazuzu
Summary: Because even as her world falls apart, there is still one thing that will keep Hermione Granger fighting


Sorry it's been a while since my last update. This is a bit different than what I usually write but I hope it's okay.

Harry Potter does not belong to me. Sadly.

**Battle**

Fear. It gripped her, twisting her insides, making her cold all over. She had been separated from Harry over an hour ago, when she and Ron had gone to the Chamber of Secrets to destroy the Horcrux they had stolen from Bellatrix Lestrage's vault at Gringotts; after that they had been chased around the school by a couple of death eaters, who then had been chased by a few of Hagrid's friends, Aragog's family. Unfortunately the acromantulas didn't exactly care who they were targeting.

Now, as she looked around she noticed she had also lost sight of Ron. They must have separated sometime when they were running around, she realized. God, she wondered if there was any hope, any hope of this ending, any hope of surviving…

She looked around in despair. There was dust everywhere making it hard to breath, the wall of the school were being hit by stray spells and curses and out-of-control creatures, everywhere she looked there were people fighting, falling, crumbling down together with the walls of Hogwarts, the place that had been her home for the last seven years, being completely destroyed. Even right at that moment she wondered why. Because of some misguided sense of supremacy? She didn't know. She didn't care. All she wanted to do right now was shout at them all to stop it, stop with the fighting. What was it all even for?

She came back to her senses when she felt the floor shaking, and she could hear the sound of the glass windows shattering, and there were no signs of anything coming to an end any time soon.

She threw herself on the floor, raising her arms as she went down to protect her face from the shards of glass that were flying her way.

In the distance she could hear raised voices shouting out curses and jinxes and somewhere in the back of her mind she realized the voices sounded familiar.

"Stupefy!" Fred. It was Fred, she realized, she could hear him shouting out incantations with - Percy? And without even realizing what she was doing, her feet started moving towards the raised voices; slowly at first, but gathering speed by the second. Fear and desperation seemed to be the only things prompting her to move when before she might have dropped down to the ground out of pure exhaustion. She couldn't stop now though, not while dread was filling her entire being and all she seemed capable of thinking was "Not him, please, not Fred"

She rounded the corner just in time to see the Death Eater raise his wand, pointing it towards Fred, her heart was beating so fast that everything else seemed to slow down. Without even stopping to think about what she was doing, she kept on running towards Fred, the impact of colliding with him sent them both to the floor just as Hermione cried out "Impedimenta!" sending the jinx upwards in order to protect the both of them from the explosion the Death Eater's hex had caused. Everything seemed to go dark for a few seconds, and she blinked furiously trying to disperse the black spots that had been formed in her eyesight and seemed to be dancing in front of her.

She flexed her finger, realizing she was holding on to more than just her wand. Fred's shoulders. Fred. That was enough to make her mind focus.

"Fred?" She called as she shook his shoulders frantically.

"Fred? Oh God, don't be dead Fred, please. Please! Fred!" She looked at him, she couldn't tell whether he was breathing or not; she wasn't sure she wanted an answer.

"Oh God, oh God" she muttered, over and over under her breath. He couldn't be dead. He just couldn't. What was she supposed to do without him? How could life go on without Fred Weasley? Was it even possible? She didn't want to find out. She didn't. But she had to.

She felt someone take hold of her shoulders and she whirled around, ready to curse whoever it was that had done this, but it was only Percy, and for a second she was disappointed. Disappointed that she wouldn't get a chance to take out her anger, her grief on the person responsible for this. He wasn't looking at her though his grip on her shoulders were tight, it was almost like he was looking through her. His eyes were wide, his face pale.

"Fred?" He called uncertainly not wanting to believe what he was seeing, much like her. Her eyes swerved down once again, towards him and she watched with bated breath. He looked so still…

"No" she whimpered, her eyes closing as tears fell down her face. It surprised her, she didn't even know she could still cry, that she had anymore tears to cry. She heard a groan and her eyes snapped opened only to meet his brown ones, the eyes she thought, for a moment, that she'd never see opened again.

"Fred!" She cried out, throwing her arms around him. She could feel Percy's grab on her tightening behind her; he was shaking. She knew she should probably let go of Fred so he could get to his brother, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"You're okay, you're okay" She repeated at him, not caring for the moment that they were in the middle of a battle.

"Hermione?" he asked confusedly. "What happened?"

She was about to answer that when Percy cut her off, the shock and fear of losing Fred seemed to have receded somewhat.

"She saved you" his voice broke.

"Hermione saved you" he repeated more loudly this time.

"What?" he asked, his eyes falling back on Hermione, whose eyes were still full of tears. Unfortunately they didn't have time for more explanations because the floor was shaking once more and they could hear shouts coming their way.

Hermione took hold of one of Fred's hands while Percy grabbed the other, and together they helped him to his feet.

"Can you walk?" Percy asked, though they were already hurrying away from whatever was coming after them.

"Yeah, yeah" he answered earnestly as the three of them ran down the stairs. Percy took the front and without saying anything Hermione went behind Fred, both of them making sure they wouldn't come so close to losing him again.

She kept her hand on his though, not wanting to lose sight of him too. Percy fired a stunning spell at another Death Eater, as they ran. She felt Fred squeezing her hand in some kind of silent reassurance, and even though they were in the middle of a war, she did feel better.

She could face it, she decided. Whatever they threw at her she could face it. As long as Fred was with her. As long as he was safe.

Fin


End file.
